Campaign To Increase Insurance Penetration

Mumbai, October 14: The Life Insurance Council of India has decided to launch a massive media campaign to provide the necessary push to the industry. The media campaign will be topped with the slogan of Sabse Pehle Life Insurance (first thing is life insurance) and the unique thing about the campaign is that it will be a joint campaign with all 24 Indian life insurance companies pitching in.

Despite the invaluable benefits of life insurance that provide the beneficiary much-needed financial relief at time of an insured's death, insurance penetration in India in continues to be at a meagre 3.69 per cent, which is one of the lowest in the world, according to data provided by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.

The council feels that there's a lack of awareness towards true purpose of life insurance plans in India and that citizens are not aware that it is the only financial instrument that provides protection to the families in case of any eventuality of the insured.

They hope the media campaign will encourage Indians to first focus on securing their financial future ahead of building a robust financial plan. And another main focus of the campaign is about encouraging Indian households to opt for adequate life insurance cover as the fundamental necessity in their lives.

"As part of Indian culture, our elders have always stressed on doing the most essential things first and then opt to carry on with other things. This is an integral part of day-to-day conversations. Sabse Pehle Life Insurance comes from this very cultural nuance and will help establish an understanding of the essentiality of life insurance in our lives and the need to treat it as top most priority while planning for life," said V Manickam, secretary of Life Insurance Council.

To have the desired effect in promotion of life insurance, the tagline will also be presented in the major Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bangla among others.

It will be interesting to see what success the media campaign brings to the industry. A similar campaign was launched a few years back by the Association of Mutual Funds Industry titled Mutual Fund Sahi Hai, which proved to be a huge success for the industry with the campaign resonating with a large number of Indians. Life Insurance Council hopes Sabse Pehle Life Insurance also proves to be a similar success.